Mata Nui never awakened. The Makuta were obliterated in the Destiny War, and the Toa Nuva placed in eternal stasis. The Matoran, along with the other species of the Matoran Universe, returned to the surface world, which had once again been reclaimed by the thriving plantlife they had once known. They began to settle down.

Then they found the first Original. A spaceship, crashed in Po-Wahi, but mostly preserved. The Vortixx and Ga-Matoran began to study it, making blueprints and copying everything that they couldn't decipher piece-for-piece. They gave the blueprints to the Po-, Ta-, and Onu-Matoran, and these in turn began to build a fleet of interplanetary-travel-capable ships. Over time, they discovered more and more Originals, of various makes and sizes, and duplicated them. They made the Originals spaceworthy again, and added them to the fleet, as flagships. They launched into space, on a voyage of hope and discovery. Pioneers to a place those before them had only dreamed of going. They explored the whole solar system thoroughly, mapping out most of the planets, save those with climates too inhospitable to land cartographers and their escorts on. They colonized the rest, building prosperous cities, though they had no capital; their governing body was made up of a Council of the wisest and most experienced among them.

Then, one day, tragedy struck. Licht, an ambitious member of the Council, struck down its senior member, the venerable but ancient Turaga Vakama, last of the Turaga of Mata Nui. This action split the Council markedly, from the minority who felt that Licht had been justified and rallied behind him, and those who felt that Licht had done an unforgivable thing and rallied against him. The Council and their followers split into two factions, the Kingdom of Worlds, ruled by Licht, and the Sun's Regency, led by Emas, another Toa on the Council. A smaller, inferior faction, led by a third member of the Council, attempted to take advantage of the division and subjugate both sides, but it was quickly quashed, and the larger forces engaged in a war that would last for millenia.